"He had developed it while contributing to 'The Daily Show' on Comedy Central. A broadcast network, steeped in the traditional 'both sides' style of Johnny Carson, was going to expect him to drop that as well as the character. CBS did; Mr. Colbert tried. It didn’t work.... The network says it decided to end 'The Late Show' because it was losing at least $40 million a year. Sounds credible, doesn’t it? Maybe not.... In forcing Mr. Colbert out and shutting down a 33-year late-night franchise — while selling that post-local-news hour of airtime to a syndicated show instead of replacing him with an original program of its own creation — CBS is assenting to its own diminishment. The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power. Then there is the opportunity, shared by everyone, to find and be entertained by voices like that on a free national platform, or to turn them off and watch something else."
Writes Bill Carter, author of “The Late Shift” and “The War for Late Night,” in
"CBS Cancels Itself, Not Just Colbert" (NYT).
The biggest criticism I'm seeing there is the failure to put something new — "an original program of its own creation" — in that slot. But maybe they know that slot is doomed. People don't watch TV the way we used to. Staying up/getting into bed early to spend that last waking hour with Johnny lest you miss the whole thing forever — there's no going back to that.
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120 comments:
The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power.
Oh yes, because the only place available to speak freely is late night network TV. Someone needs to show this guy the internet.
Eh - the foundation of all leftwing Bs is lies.
Loss of $40 million a year seems credible to me, given that all three networks were broadcasting the same leftist stuff, splitting the diminished late night market 3 ways and losing any folks who appreciated comedy that brings laughs to both sides.
Unfunny comedy why didnt anyone think of that
Good riddance to horrible rubbish. Colbert was a legend in his own mind.
Mr. Colbert is a free to speak as he ever was. CBS just decided to stop spending $192,000 per day of their own dollars to subsidize his megaphone.
There's a non-fine line between good mocking humor that addresses the foibles of contemporary life in all its forms and just plain propaganda that is a mouthpiece for the powerful from one political persuasion. Colbert is out because he was all about the propaganda. Things are funny when they are unexpected and catch us off guard. Propaganda is always predictable. And there's no reason to watch predictable unless you're in the very narrow group who needs propaganda reinforcement.
Now isn't that interesting. David Letterman hosted The Late Show from '93 to '15, but no mention? Chopped Liver, is he? No the theme is, 'how far CBS has fallen'. They've failed Stephen Colbert, and disgraced themselves, in the eyes of their audience, who coincidentally are the ones providing the ratings, also unmentioned.
Colbert has called in all of his markers, hasn't he. Because he's finished in television.
The NYT needed to have someone claim that cancellation of a money losing program was politically motivated. Carter delivered.
Once upon a time, late night was the refuge from network censorship, and there was no Internet. No more.
Colbert will find a niche.
Hes going on to destroy lord of the rings
Our First Amendment freedoms are now gone with the passing of Steven Cobert from the late night scene. After all, how will the country survive without having someone use the phrase "cock holster" on TV? Sad.
Oh the humanity!
I love how unimportant it is for someone else to lose $40,000,000 a year so that someone you agree with can have a platform to spout your opinions. If Charlie Kirk had a show in that spot, doing his stick, and losing that much, the writer would have been all over CBS to cancel a money draining show.
One recalls Rush limbaughhad a brief program for a few years that they ran at ridiculous time slot that was informative the Times were not amused
Having bill carter explain this is like tellimg a fish about air
"[T]he foundation of Mr. Colbert’s success…"
He's losing $40M/year. If that's success, I'd hate to see failure.
CBS chose to exercise its freedom to not lose $40 million a year on a Self-Important Boomer.
Revenge is a dish best served Colbert.
Probably should have attempted jokes about Islam -- yeah, that's the ticket!
"Hard core" political comedy? As in "cock holster"?
They’re upset one of their many court jester propaganda outlets is going away- waa! waa! waa! End of civilization- waa!
"The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power"
Colbert didn't speak truth to power, he was doing political advocacy for one point of view. Perfectly permissible, but don't act like it is a loss to America if CBS won't pay him handsomely for him to present his one-sided diatribes.
Had he kept the Col-bairrr parody right winger character going, he would have done better in the ratings. Something different from the other lefty late-night hosts.
Plus sometimes he just couldn't parody the right; Col-bairrr would say something Colbert thought was outrageous, and the audience would genuinely clap. Or he'd bring on a real-life lefty pol, and Col-bairrr's silly questions would wind up exposing the pol's idiocy. So in spite of himself, he was showing both sides.
And I'm sure there are some righties who, a la Spinal Tap, thought Col-bairr was a real right winger. So there were all those eyeballs to harvest.
Part of why Gutfeld succeeds is because he's often the right parodying itself. CC, JSM
The dancing syringes was his nadir
the Democratic left are Maoists. you will be punished for your thoughts - unless you obey.
colbert is just a bootlicker for all of that.
"The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely" about the superiority of leftist opinion on every corporate media outlet in existence.
“The dancing syringes was his nadir”
Yes, along with his shimmy shimmy coco pop mincing.
Colbert has called in all of his markers, hasn't he. Because he's finished in television.
At least we've got his presidential run, endorsed by Obama, to look forward to!
With the sad, solemn commentary that inevitably follows the cancellations of these shows, I'm starting to think that the sad, solemn commenters believe that the enthusiasm of the little studio audience is a proxy for the television audience and ratings. It doesn't ever seem to occur to them that you can always find a hundred people who will be thrilled to watch a TV show being taped. And of course you can always find a hundred people who will clapter it up for a political comedian - on either side. (There's just no point in tapping the hundred conservatives milling around outside to be your audience when your comedian is a progressive.)
How can a successful TV show lose money? What were the actual viewership numbers?
The balanced approach "didn't work". The unbalanced (heh) approach lost $40 MILLION per year.
We have a wildly differing definition of work here.
Why are ABC NBC and CBS entitled to public air waves?
'We'll make it up in volume'
Lippmans law
"The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power."
Hilarious. Had Colbert, for example, been mocking Joe Biden between 2020 and 2025, his show would have still been losing money and Carter would have written this morning, "Good riddance to bad rubbish." Who, exactly, does Carter think he is fooling with this drivel?
Plus 1 to what Jamie wrote at 9:35 AM. No one was watching the Colbert show- the ratings were abysmal compared to what Letterman used to draw in the same slot. This isn't a problem as long as you don't pay through the nose for the host and the staff but you can't do it the way CBS was doing it and lose money year after year.
Brutally mocking those in power? Only if there's an [R] after their name.
Aggie noted David Letterman. “Chopped liver” works for me.
Bright, funny - but kind of a “mean” funny. Snarky to the Max. A little too much like the old “Newlywed Game” - Let’s invite Joe Sixpack and the Missus to be TV celebrities and act all friendly to them while ridiculing the shit out of them.
Letterman was Carson for The Cool Kids and the ones who thought they were.
Bill Carter should be directing his complaints to his fellow Leftists, who failed to watch this show in sufficient number to justify the expense of it. To follow his logic, it is they who are endangering "core American values".
Maybe a little collective action on the viewing front would've raised their awareness of the catastrophe awaiting them.
Osbourne was devil may care thats why they exiled him to scrabble
The Modern Audience sarc
CBS Cancels Itself, Not Just Colbert
A twofer. Nice!
Remind me, please: how much mocking of Obama did Mr. Colbert engage in? AOC? Bernie Sanders? Lots of potential material there.
The network says it decided to end 'The Late Show' because it was losing at least $40 million a year. Sounds credible, doesn’t it?
It's incredible that Progressives think we lose 'core American values' if a private company is unwilling to lose $40 million per year to produce and broadcast Progressive propaganda.
At any point, did CBS approach Colbert, and say, "You get 50 million per year to produce your show." If you can do it, you can stay.
There are thousands of Youtube channels that produce more popular content for a production budget of 1% of what Colbert's show costs.
One Youtube channel is just a handsome Korean woman setting up a tent and a bunch of camping equipment. She doesn't talk, there is a cute dog, and it's always raining. It's a half-hour long and more engaging than Colbert's show. A perfect show to watch while drifting off to sleep.
Offer her $10,000 per episode to broadcast her channel on CBS, and see what happens.
So a Party apparatchik wrote an essay on another Party member, published by the Party propaganda outlet.
Letterman: “ Bright, funny - but kind of a “mean” funny.” Especially the prank phone calls. They edged on cruelty.
CBS refused to have a live inteview with Trump for years after J6, even though he was the Ex-POTUS. The far-left Network execs didn't like him. And Althouse has shown the video of colbert celebrating over Trump being banned from Social Media and every platform.
So, free speech is not a CBS value or a Colbert value.
As for Colbert, he stayed on the air because of his far-left politics. Almost from the beginning his show was highly political and made it clear that anyone to the right of Obama/Hillary should change the channel..
And Colbert wasn't funny. How many times has he hosted the Oscars or other important events? His "Showbiz Footprint" outside of Late Nite was tiny. Because he was NOT a good interviewer, and he wasn't funny.
He can probably start a new show on HBO and get the same over 60, small crowd, he got at CBS.
I liked him on Comedy Central and was looking forward to his CBS late nite, but I was shocked when I turned in, because he's not likable and he's not funny. He needs a comic character and a room full of writers. Say what you want about Jay Leno or Letterman at least they were standup comics who could tell a joke.
Has anyone questioned the validity of the phrase “ Mr. Colbert’s success?”
At the beginning of the snippet, Carter notes that Colbert was a departure from the Johnny Carson tradition of apolitical or non-political or non-partisan TV comedy and conversation. At the end of it, Carter's saying that Colbert's highly political, one-sided approach represents "core American values." I'm pretty sure that Carson was more in tune with those values. Other entertainers from Will Rogers to Dick Cavett had political views and presented them in their shows, but they had a lighter touch. They weren't inciting half the country against the other. A tradition of free and open discussion doesn't have to divide the country. Public spaces free from political provocations are also an American tradition.
That said, consider that Colbert and Kimmel may have been the left's revenge for being unable to compete in talk radio. Could it be said that they took the rhetoric and attitudes of talk radio into a medium that people of their political stripe controlled? Colbert repackaged the wildness of some political shock jocks as snideness and dressed it up in a suit and got his show from the network.
Steven Wilson said...
Has anyone questioned the validity of the phrase “ Mr. Colbert’s success?”
Getting a major network to pay you $15 million so that you could cost them $40 million has to mean something, you know. Ordinary on-screen talent are paid to make money for the network, so he must be an extraordinary talent to be paid big bucks to lose even bigger bucks.
"..was going to expect him to drop that as well as the character. CBS did; Mr. Colbert tried..."
assumes facts, not in evidence.
but let's address the elephant in the room..
how The Hell does a network spend (let alone "lose" $40 MILLION a year producing commericals for the Democrat Party?
Jesus Fucking GODDAMN CHRIST! you're making infomercials for the dems.. this should require:
1 iphone
1 loser to talk the talking points
1 car for the loser to sit in.
Welcome to the modern world CBS
“The biggest criticism I'm seeing there is ….” Maybe, but implicit is that CBS should continue to lose the $40 million so that Colbert’s precious bullshit will continue to be preached to his choir. “Implicit” is the usual NYT way.
"The foundation of Mr. Colbert's success was something new to late night:" hatred of the other.
Out of curiosity, do 'guests' pay for late night show time e.g., b/c they are promoting a movie?
Colbert's end was partly the passing of TV itself as a force. TV today repackages other, more vital forms - comics, social media, Youtubers, Amazon shows - and so, like the Reader's Digest, has an audience. But repackaged comedy - worn-out jokes, profanity, bizarre theories - is just the paper dead rotted fish were wrapped in.
if Mr. Carter pines for the “good old days”, maybe CBS should put reruns of Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best in that slot.
Quayle said...
"..maybe CBS should put reruns of Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best in that slot.."
this raises Another interesting question:
which channel had higher viewership?
CBS running Colbert? or MeTV running reruns?
Randomizer said...
"..One Youtube channel is just a handsome Korean woman setting up a tent and a bunch of camping equipment. She doesn't talk, there is a cute dog, and it's always raining.."
Thank you Rand! it's like this channel was made for me!
I actually liked Stephen Colbert until he started his constant, and extremely vulgar, attacks on Trump. I couldn't watch him anymore because it mad me sad. I can also say the same thing for Jimmy Kimmel.
"And I'm sure there are some righties who, a la Spinal Tap, thought Col-bairr was a real right winger. "
My Mom, before she died, did. My brother explained it to her, but she still loved to watch.
I'm interested in the metric that characterizes a money losing show with declining ratings a success.
Byalistok rules
Forty million is a steep price, but, if the Dems control the White House and Congress, it's probably worth it to have them on your side. If Trump's in the White House, it's stupid to pay forty million dollars to guarantee increased hostility from that quarter. Maybe when the Dems regain control of the White House, Colbert can return to CBS with Hosannas for the restoration........When the President was banned from Twitter and other places, why wasn't that a restriction on his free speech rights? This Colbert love they're showing is kind of icky. Come on up kiddies and give the Drag Queen story teller a nice blow job.
If Republicans outperform during the mid-terms, it will be due to smug bullshit artists like Colbert.
Of course, when AIPAC aligned billionaires buy a network, it's going to have consequences. This was the deal that Trump made to overcome the overwhelming media opposition, and even Democratic opposition, and all it cost him was that he had to take orders from AIPAC regarding use of the US military.
It wasn't a comedy/variety show. It had little of either. Based on its content and results, it was an unpaid DNC campaign ad. Prove me wrong.
"I'm interested in the metric that characterizes a money losing show with declining ratings a success."
For the reason, see my comment ^
"The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power."
Too late- it's already been done. Surely, everybody remembers how the rodeo clown who wore an Obama mask was treated, right?
They were making the $40 million back in favors from their Democrat cronies, without a doubt.
The foundation to Colbert's success was performative politics only targeted towards uninformed/badly- informed, college students whose minds were clouded by pot and needed their infantile wannabe cravings for attention validated.
Once he went to late night, no mature, working class demographic had time for his Temu talk show full of unfunny, over dramatic campus whining.
Simple demographics. The Hysterical Boomer crowd just isn’t willing to stay up that late anymore. And the Hysterical Gen Z crowd is gaming at that time of night. The potential audience exists but it’s elsewhere. I’ll catch a clip on Bluesky in the morning.
I'm still not clear how a tv station cancelling a show intended for a left leaning audience that refuses to watch it equates with a loss of the right to free speech.
Has anybody figured that out yet?
Jon Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, and Steven Spielberg are guests his final week. I sense an awakening in the memes.
While Colbert was costing the network $40 million they ran him anyway. Why? It was worth it to them(or somebody) to have him promoting the right ‘message’. Do you think that unknown(or untalked about) sugar daddies were making the network losses right so the ‘message’ could still get out?
I just can’t see how CBS would continue throwing good money after bad, unless……..
How many in the live audience are repeat customers? Homeless people, retirees, vagrants?
"Tickets to attend a live studio taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert are 100% free. The show is never allowed to sell tickets, and anyone attempting to sell regular audience tickets to you is running a scam"
I barely watch what used to be broadcast television.
It takes a times contributor to misread that
How many hours of podcasts can be produced for forty millions
I see today that the NY Post says 91% of SNL’s Weekend Update jokes were aimed at conservatives. Setting aside the question of — Jokes? I didn’t hear no stinking jokes — one cannot escape the conclusion that if you cut off half your potential audience, you’ll die. Stephen Colbert was probably more like 100%, btw.
$40 million is peanuts compared to paying for that much political ad time on a network. I think the reason they are dropping it now is that it's not convincing any new voters. It's no longer giving Democrats their money's worth.
Korean woman setting up tent in the rain...
A glance at her channel (Kirin Camp) shows she's getting between 2 and 30 million views per episode.
Across 2025, Colbert averaged 2.7 million viewers for his episodes.
Hmm...
Rumor has it Colbert joining Only Fans.
"Success?"
The guy's being shitcanned because he's been costing his bosses at least 40 large a year.
Strange definition of success.
Colbert insulted half of the country on a nightly basis. And those who would sit through it nightly surely have to be numbheaded. How many hours can you listen to Wanda Sykes talk about Trump, or Neil deGrasse Tyson talk about Trump, or John Oliver talk about Trump, or Bernie Sanders talk about Trump. And on and on.
This is not entertainment. It's not even a 'point of view'. It's an obsession. It's not funny. Johnnie Carson was funny. He had funny people on. They talked about a world of things- not just a political point of view. And...they made people- all people- feel good watching it.
But...no one watches late night anymore. Too many options to watch things any time you want. And, seriously, who would come back for more after this:
The Most Cringe Thing Ever?.
He was selling hate five nights a week. Good riddance.
It is interesting that none of the usual Althouse lefties are defending Colbert. That is a clue (outside of his ratings) as to how unpopular he is.
CBS funded that guy to the tune of $40 million in losses. What was the purpose?
Yes tyson isnt all that either
Nobody is losing "the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power." Colbert is just losing the privilege of having a big megaphone for his point of view, and CBS is cutting their monetary losses from an overpaid opinionator. Colbert will undoubtedly still spew his venom, just not on CBS's dime... Or 400 million dimes.
When hes talking strickly astrophysics hes informative
Bari Weiss is the Donald Trump of the news industry. Professional competence and a desire to get to the truth of issues is not what is required or valued. Propaganda for the rich, Trump, and Israel and interests aligned with those groups are the priority.
The claim regarding being "anti-cancel culture" is also hilarious and absurd, given the level of censorship that people like Weiss engage in for even the most mild, fact-based criticisms of Israel. Fundamentally, these people Love Free Speech, when it has the backing of rich donors. They prefer enforced silence when it involves any challenge to their core beliefs or the interests of their rich benefactors. Fundamentally, they are enemies of the First Amendment and genuine Free Speech. You can't have high quality journalism or any serious pursuit of the truth without those commitments.
Adios muchacho--I won't miss Colbert or Colbert's shtick.
I remember when cbs had that block of late night programming like silk stalkings
Hasta la vista colbert
"Once upon a time, late night was the refuge from network censorship, and there was no Internet. No more."
Did I read that right?
As one who has performed on late night television, I can say this isn't true.
I'm reminded of the proscription enforced by Letterman himself: "No moisture jokes." (No jokes touching, even peripherally on bodily functions.) Segment producers run sets over and over in order to not incur the wrath of Standards & Practices. It's gotten a bit looser, but there's still "censors." Cable's another ballgame.
The notion this is about free speech is undermined by the $40 million loss.
"The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power." Somebody link to his mocking Obama and Biden, or even Hillary, and I'll rethink my conclusion that this was a completely bullshit take.
That explains how gutfeld is able to get away with so much
Colbert's opinions are pretty much like assholes - in the category of "everyone has one". He's spent his life honing his comedic skills and breaking into show biz - NOT studying political science, economics, or history. His opinions on current events are no more sophisticated than the average person. Why, WHY do people flock to opinions like this, instead of seeking out informed, learned opinions on current events? Making sense of the world is not his wheelhouse, making us laugh is. SMH!
Hes much stupider than the average person
"Hes much stupider than the average person"
The left seems to find him somewhat entertaining, just not $40 million/year worth.
Colbert ignored the obvious fact that his employer was in business to make money. Losing lots of money is not a sustainable business model. Apparently this fact escaped him. In other words, he’s a progressive.
Adios, pinci pendejo!
RCOCEAN II said...
“I liked him on Comedy Central and was looking forward to his CBS late nite, but I was shocked when I turned in, because he's not likable and he's not funny.”
So he went from Mary Katherine Gallagher on SNL to Mary Katherine Gallagher in Superstar
even the most mild, fact-based criticisms of Israel
Like what?
No, seriously, can you point to a "mild, fact-based criticism of Israel" that's been censored? Your own adjectives are important there: is your example "mild," as in, not an accusation of war crimes, genocide, or (yeah, I'm gonna go there) blood libel? Is it fact-based, in that any independent* source is not a UN agency, affiliated NGO, or other "Palestinian"** or Iranian mouthpiece?
* My adjective is also important: your "fact basis" must not be someone supposedly "independent" who's just quoting one of the aforementioned "Palestinian"-symps, in the way that our vaunted mainstream media launder their sources.
Truly, if you have some instance in which Weiss has killed a properly sourced story about, say, Israel's bad environmental policies for landfills or the poor work ethic of Israeli youth or the breakdown of Israeli pension funds, let's hear it!
** Because there has never been any such nationality. And talk to the Kurds, who somehow manage not to be uniformly terrorists and terrorist sympathizers, though they are surely a large ethnic group without a nation-state.
Colbert is only funny if you are a "canned laughter" aficionado.
Free speech relates only to government regulated speech, it has nothing to do with employers in the market. The question for CBS was whether the speech was worth losing $40 million a year. For most companies that is an easy question. What doesn’t make sense is that CBS waited this long before dumping this money losing dumpster fire.
Boy the “waaaaaa it’s censorship!” side sure is sensitive all of a sudden to normal television churn. But as noted above Rush Limbaugh was repeatedly deplatformed from television by the left, who labeled him “the most dangerous man in America.” For what? Actually speaking “truth to power” as the theatre kids like to say. Not only were his sponsors, production partners and participating affiliates targeted but the local stations that aired him (broadcast TV like Jimmy and Colbert) would shift the program airtime around starting 15 or 30 minutes early or late, making it difficult to tape on early VCRs. Every elected democrat smeared and slandered him.
Not one fucking democrat had the balls to stand up for Rush’s right to free speech. No. It was attack attack attack for the entire 30+ years his show ran. Then they celebrated his deafness. And his death even more so.
Spare me the crocodile tears over Cock Holster Colbert.
The few times I saw the show it was a straight up one sided political push.
Bend over Stephen. Here comes the syringe.
To be successful in comedy, Stephen, you must first make people laugh.
Now visualize, if you will, the giant cartoon size shepherds crook yanking him offstage.
Of course the right to have a permanent oligopical platform to inculcate the public with your political propaganda is right there in the Constitution, and any limitation upon that right, including your employer's insistence on not losing tens of millions of dollars in the process, is a THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY!!
Lawnerd,
BagH20 has it figured out at 1:21 p.m. - - cheap advertising / propaganda reinforcement for the left.
Except Colbert is one of many lefty hacks spouting the same thing on different channels. Rush was the ONE conservative voice having fun on TV and they went 100% to get him off, never stopping until they succeeded in getting him off TV.
Show me the equivalent movement on the right to silence anyone. Ever. Bueller? Bueller?
Bill Carter is free to start his own network and pay Colbert whatever he wants. CBS does not have to continue to lose money so Bill can get his nightly jollies. Colbert can do a pay-cast and people who want to pay to see the content can support him that way.
Colbert didn't speak truth to power, he was doing political advocacy for one point of view.
Like most of the media, he's all about speaking Power to Truth, not the other way around.
Can't come soon enough.
The biggest loss is to core America values, such as the right to speak freely, even in brutally mocking terms, about those in power.
Sure. That's why Colbert was regularly doing segments about brain damaged Biden, or idiot Harris.
Oh, wait, he didn't. because all he's about is doing Democrat Party propaganda. Which is not in fact a "core American value".
Then there is the opportunity, shared by everyone, to find and be entertained by voices like that on a free national platform, or to turn them off and watch something else.
Yes, well "everyone" has been looking for that for 20 years, and turning them off. because all that's been offered is left wing trash.
No, the purveyors of left wing trash do NOT in fact have a "right" to be paid by the rest of us.
Bill Carter is a loser
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